The window of opportunity to apply sovereignty over West Bank settlements appears to have closed and it is unclear when it will return, former justice minister and Yamina MK Ayelet Shaked told reporters on Sunday.
Netanyahu’s “claim that [sovereignty] is still on the table is just spin... we all know it,” she said at a Jerusalem Press Club virtual event.
Her words came as the country was in the final countdown toward elections and on the eve of an anticipated visit by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to celebrate the burgeoning peace deal between Israel and the United Arab Emirates.
The deal opened up the possibility of a peace deal with Israel and the Arab world, but appeared to bury the possibility of annexation.
On Sunday, some of the more ardent supporters of sovereignty, such as Shaked, acknowledged bluntly that this will not happen at this time.
The clock is important here, because it is unclear if US President Donald Trump will secure a second term in the upcoming US November election, and his Democratic opponent Joe Biden is opposed to such a move.
Israel has agreed to suspend annexation as part of the UAE deal. Netanyahu has sworn that annexation will still occur, but Trump and his special adviser Jared Kushner have been firm about the annexation suspension. There is no deadline for when the suspension would be lifted and it is unlikely that this would occur prior to November.
The current government, she said, was elected to manage the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, to apply sovereignty to portions of the West Bank and to promote national reconciliation.
“It failed at all three,” Shaked said.
The pending UAE deal with Israel was a welcomed event, “but we paid a high price for it,” she said.
Israel has had economic cooperation with the UAE for many years, but the deal places those ties “above the table” which is a “good thing,” Shake said.
It opens economic doors for Israel in the fields of energy, water and medicine.
But to make the deal, “Netanyahu missed a huge opportunity and I do not know if we will have such an opportunity again with such a positive administration in the White House,” Shaked said.
She explained that she is opposed to “concession for peace.” If a country wants to do a peace with Israel, it should be a “peace for peace and not anything else,” Shaked said.
To that end she emphasized that her party, would “never agree to a Palestinian state. “
This our red line. Our vision is for the Palestinians to enjoy civilian autonomy under the Palestinian Authority and to live side-by-side in peace. If other Arab countries want to normalize relations with Israel, we are more than happy, but it should be peace for peace.”
Shaked predicted that elections would not occur. If and when it did, she said, her Yamina Party headed by former defense minister Naftali Bennett offered the best right-wing alternative to the Likud.
“I think that Naftali Bennett can be prime minister after Netanyahu and is capable” of doing it, she said.